


A risky game

by Inukistar



Category: Thunderbirds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 15:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7807669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inukistar/pseuds/Inukistar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who's up for a game of Risk?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A risky game

**Author's Note:**

> To have a better idea of what kind of map that was used for the game (because there are many), here's the link of the map I referred to in this fic: http://happywithgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/original-risk-board-game-map.jpg

John was home and that alone was a rare occasion. Despite that fact, he was all by himself near the pool, reading an old book, under an umbrella and sunglasses on his lightly sun creamed nose. The breeze felt nice under the burning sun of this early Thursday afternoon. The sound of waves and the rustling of leaves were music to his ears as he casually ignored the loud commotion coming from the house.

Every time he was reminded why he missed Earth, one of his brothers managed to also remind him why he was so comfortable in space. Alone. Floating in micro-gravity. Surrounded by the chatter of strangers. Monitoring everything as he tried to discover a word among the endless sea of conversations he was receiving that could make him believe that International Rescue had a situation they had to take care of.

Still, he will never bring himself to admit that some days, up there, he missed hearing the complaints of Alan, the bad jokes of Gordon, the sound advice of Virgil and Scott’s brotherly love.

And today wasn’t going to be the day he’ll have an epiphany.

John Tracy had the firm intention to keep his nose in his book (old paper smelled so nice!) and to enjoy a bit of sunshine and the wind caressing his face. He didn’t know what was going on in the house and he didn’t want to know either. He was due to return to Thunderbird 5 the next day and his only desire for the moment was to enjoy nature.

Scott, obviously, had other plans in mind.

The eldest of the family, struck by nostalgia and probably also because he was trying to escape the pressure of being the one taking all the big decisions lately when it came down to International Rescue business, found his way into his father’s room. Ever since the accident, only his grandmother managed to come here, although it was only to open the windows from time to time. She never stayed more than a minute or two. When Scott entered the room, he was surprised to see it filled with light. He always imagined the place to be dark and depressing since the disappearance of his father. Somewhat, this light made him comfortable enough to sit on the bed and looked around him. He needed to remember who his father was and what he stood for.

That was when the box in the unclosed closet caught his eye.

His father kept a lot of old things around and as the boys grew older, he started to fill their house with relics of his past. Scott remembered the last time this box opened and the memories made him smile. His family needed new memories and a new occasion to bond, he was sure of it. So he took the box and left the room. As usual, his brothers (well MOST of them) and Kayo were in the living room. He could hear them as he walked down the corridor.

“Who wants to play a game?” he said as he entered the room.

“Oh-oh-OH! Me! Me!” Alan answered immediately, raising excitedly his hand. When his older brother put the big box on the table, his smile turned into a frown. “Er… What is _that_?” Scott couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s a game. An old one.”

“Oh no. No no. You’re _not_ taking this one out,” warned Virgil as soon as he read the name on the box.

“Why not? It’ll be fun.”

“Fun? You clearly don’t remember it like I do.”

“Hey… Wait a minute. This does ring a bell,” Gordon squinted his eyes as he stared at the word _Risk_ on the side of the box.

“Scott,” Kayo intervened, “this could be the best or the worst idea of the year.”

“You and John almost killed each other over that game,” continued Virgil, arms crossed over his chest.

“We were kids,” Scott shrugged it off, but Virgil only frowned at his comment.

“Teenagers,” he corrected his oldest brother. “That’s why dad put it away.”

“What? Really?” Gordon looked surprised.

“So we were a bit competitive.” Again, Scott shrugged. “We’re all adults now. Well, most of us.”

“Hey!” Alan pouted.

“Aside from how it ended, you have to admit it was fun.” Scott grinned at the pilot of Thunderbird 2 who clearly wasn’t impressed by his arguments. “Kayo, back me up!”

“It’s true that it was a fun game until you two started to lose it,” the young woman agreed.

“What?! You played with them?” Gordon turned his attention to Kayo now. “Why wasn’t I invited?”

“Swim competition,” she answered.

“Oh yeah… I had a lot of those back then.”

“And that’s why you’re a gold medal Olympian,” she smiled at Gordon.

“Nice save,” the swimmer smiled back at her.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not interested in some old boring game invented _decades_ before I was born.” Alan’s nose wrinkled as he opened the box. “Look at all this stuff! How are we supposed to know what to do with all this?”

“The instruction manual should be under the board,” Scott explained.

“Instruction manual? You need to _read_ before playing this game?” Alan’s enthusiasm declined as quickly as it took to Thunderbird 3 to reach space.

“What’s wrong, Alan? I thought that you like to read,” Gordon poked his young brother.

“Yeah, but… You read to learn things or to relax. Not to play a game,” he whined. “How is that even relaxing? Aren’t you worried that we’ll keep going back to the manual instead of just, I don’t know, playing the game?”

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Scott laughed.

“It says you need two to six players to play,” Kayo read on the box. “I guess we’re enough to start this game. There’s five of us.”

“No. Six. I’ll get John,” Scott beamed brightly.

“Scott, I’m not sure about this,” Virgil warned him. _Again_.

“If John is playing, then I guess I’ll give it a try,” Alan commented without any ulterior motive.

“Well, I’m definitely playing no matter what,” Gordon leaned forward, a grin on his lips and a hand on his knee. “I don’t know what I missed last time, but I’m not going to miss it now.”

“Kayo?” Scott asked.

“I’m in.” She turned her eyes to Virgil. The latter sighed, but he had a big smile on his lips.

“Fine. I’ll play too regardless if John joins or not.” He unfolded his arms. Might as well join the game and try to keep all those hot heads under control.

“So what is this game about, exactly?” Alan took a tiny black plastic soldier out of the box and examined it carefully.

“It’s a world domination game,” Virgil told the youngest.

“And I bet that’s the Hood’s favorite game!” Gordon couldn’t help but say it. The glares he received made him understand that the joke wasn’t funny. “Oh come on… Don’t tell me none of you had a thought about it when Virgil described the game.”

“Let’s…keep the Hood out of our leisure activities.” Kayo shook her head as she unfolded the board. “For an old game, it’s well kept.”

“The map is not 100% accurate though,” Alan commented after he looked over Kayo’s shoulder to see the board. “None of the continents are split up properly. There are way more countries than that in Europe.”

“It’s a simplified version of the world map of back then,” Virgil said to Alan. “The game would be too crazy if it had all the countries. It’s already long enough as it is.”

“Wait… Long enough as it is? How long can a game last?” The young Tracy saw Kayo and Virgil exchanging a glance then a grin. “Guys, knock it off and answer me!”

“Oh… A couple of hours,” Kayo vaguely answered. “If you can play hours at your video games, I think you can handle this one.”

In the meantime, while the little group got the game ready, Scott jogged down the stairs that led to the pool. John will need some convincing, that was for sure. Their last game of Risk had been, well, a catastrophe to put it mildly. But the eldest of the Tracy boys had already a speech prepared by the time he reached his little brother’s chair.

“Hey John,” he called at the astronaut lying comfortably on his chair. “Would you like to play a game with us?”

“Hi Scott,” John answered politely and without looking up from his book. “No, thank you. I’m alright here.”

“Come on, John… We hardly see you when you come down. I know the noise disturbs you sometimes, but---“

“It’s the gravity, Scott,” the younger brother cut in politely. Actually, yes the noise annoyed him, especially when he was trying to think. However, John didn’t want to tell his brothers they were annoyingly loud and they should try to tone it down a bit. It was like asking them to stop breathing. So he endured it as much as he could and tried to find ways to cope with it. “It has nothing to do with you guys.”

“John…” By his tone, John knew Scott didn’t fall for the excuse, but didn’t go further on the subject.

“Scott… I like it here. You know I’m more of an introvert. I’ll go see you guys later and watch you play your game then.”

“It’s Risk, John.”

Ok. So _now_ John looked up from his book.

“What? Where did you find it? No, wait… Forget that I asked. Are you mad, Scott?”

“Stop talking like Virgil.” He pulled a chair and sat next to John. First objective of his strategy achieved: his brother was no longer reading his book. “We’re not kids anymore. It’ll be fun. Just some friendly rivalry over global domination.”

“Friendly rivalry?” The ginger arched an eyebrow. “No. I’m sorry, Scott, but I’m not going to touch this game ever again. For both our sakes.”

“Aren’t you curious to know who would have won between the two of us?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“I’m begging you!”

“No.”

“It’ll make good memories for Gordon and Alan!”

“You mean you’ll scar them for life. We’re both sore losers at this game, Scott. That’s why dad took it away.”

“If you play,” Scott weighted his words carefully with a hint of a grin on his lips, “I will personally make sure that the next time you come down from Thunderbird 5, you will have all the peace and quiet you want. And,” he raised a finger, “if you win, you get complete immunity from Grandma’s cooking during your stay.”

There was a moment of silence before John slowly looked over his sunglasses, grinning back at Scott.

“You drive a hard bargain.” What was the harm anyway? His older brother was right: they were older now, more mature. He’ll just avoid attacking Scott and leave someone else to take care of him. That should be more than enough to avoid anything dramatic to happen. “Alright. I’ll play. And I call dibs on the black set.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Tell me that you’re joking,” Kayo narrowed her eyes to Gordon.

“I’m just saying that we should respect the color of our Thunderbirds,” the aquanaut replied. “I’m yellow. Virgil is green. Alan is red…”

“Thunderbird Shadow is _black_ ,” the head of security countered.

“Yes, but you’re the only girl here.” Gordon waved the pink set in front of her eyes.

“That’s sexism.”

“Hey! If Lady Penelope were here, I would give her the pink set and fear for my life,” he raised his hands in defense. “Our London agent is making corrupted industrialists shake in their shoes in a pink car and while wearing high heels.”

“I’m _not_ Lady Penelope, Gordon. Give me the black set.”

“I’m sorry Kayo,” Scott said as he came in with John, “but that’s John’s set. It’s one of his conditions to play the game.”

“What?”

“It’s alright, Kayo,” John chuckled, “I can take the pink soldiers. I don’t mind. It’s just a color.” Kayo looked conflicted for a moment and her eyes wandered on the floor as if she was searching for something to say.

“You sure John? I don’t recall Thunderbird 5 having any pink on it.” Gordon took a second to think. “Are you wearing a pink sash up there while no one is looking?”

“What? Of course not,” John arched an eyebrow.  “Why would you think that?”

“Just trying to figuring out why you wouldn’t mind having this set.”

“I just don’t want us to fight over colors. That’s all.” He held out his hand to get the pink set when Kayo took it before him.

“On second thought,” she said with a grin, “I’ll take it. They’ll be my tiny amazons and I want you all to cry when women finally take their rightful place as supreme leaders of the world.”

“A bold statement!” Scott’s eyes reflected his inner excitement. “But can you back it up?” He took the set Virgil handed down to him: the blue one.

“Just watch me.”

Cards were distributed and the players placed their armies on the board according to them. Virgil felt absolutely bad for Alan and Gordon who had no idea what was waiting for them. Fate didn’t favor them one bit: Alan got Iceland (among other countries) but was surrounded by Kayo and John while Gordon had one half of Australia while Scott had the rest of the continent. Virgil could already see Scott’s and Kayo’s devilish glow in their eyes as they planned their strategy.

John seemed calmer, but Virgil long learned to not be fooled by his older brother’s relax demeanor. Fingers crossed, he studied the map carefully with his green eyes as he switched from his sunglasses to his normal glasses. If he could keep his head into the game, John would be the adversary to beat according to Virgil.

However, his troops and Scott’s were awfully close to each other. If they wished to not attack each other to not repeat the mistakes of the past, the cards had other plans for them.

“Alright, I think we should go from the youngest to the oldest,” Virgil proposed and turned his eyes to Alan.

“What?” Alan seemed nervous. “But I don’t know how to play…”

“We’ll guide you through it, don’t worry,” John said with a small smile.

“Alright… So…what’s the first step?”

 

* * *

 

“I’m forming an alliance with Alan,” Gordon announced proudly before wrapping an arm around his baby brother.

“What does that even mean?” Alan asked.

“I don’t attack you and you don’t attack me,” Gordon smiled.

“And why do you suddenly want us to make an alliance?” The youngest of the group squinted his eyes at his brother. “You’re planning to stab me in the back when I less expect it, don’t you?”

“What? Of course not! Look, whoever could resist 6 attacks from two different players like you just did must be a sign of good fortune and I want to be on the right side when you crush them all.”

“Thank…you?”

“Keep defending Iceland, Alan. I got your back.”

“Says the man who has already lost three countries,” Kayo replied with soft laugh.

“At least, _one_ of us is looking out for the youngest!” Gordon took the dice. “And I intend to get those territories back!”

 

* * *

 

 

“Really?” John observed Scott place more troops near his borders. “Fortifying?”

“I can’t exactly ignore you,” Scott glanced up at John.

“We have an agreement.”

“That we do, but your borders are too well-defended. If you ever break our truce, I’m going to be ready for it.”

“You have so little faith in me?”

“I trust you as far as I can throw you when it comes to this game.” And it was under John’s frown that Scott put more soldiers in Ukraine.

 

* * *

 

 

“Dammit, Alan,” Kayo swore under her breath.

“Ah-ah! You’re not getting Iceland!”

“How is that even possible? You’re all alone on that tiny piece of rock, surrounded by me and John! How can you resist for so long?”

“I don’t want to jinx it, but I think rolling lots of 6s and 5s has helped me.”

“I will get into Europe, Alan.”

“Well, you can always use the back door,” the teenager smiled.

“Hey! Don’t tell her that! I’m the one on her path!” Gordon almost screamed.

“And after Gordon, I’ll have to go through Virgil, Scott and John.” Kayo glared at the youngest of the Tracy. “Your luck will leave you, Alan. And I’ll be there to collect your remains. Iceland _will_ be mine.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Virgil?! What are you doing?” Scott gasped his horror.

“Expanding my territory. What does it look like?”

“You…betrayed me?”

“Scott…”

“How could you do this to me?”

“Scott.”

“I trusted you!”

“Scott!”

“I thought you would have my back!”

“Scott, we never had any form of alliance so use your sad puppy eyes on someone who will fall for them and throw your dice.”

The pilot of Thunderbird 1 made a sad whine when he saw Virgil’s numbers, rolled his defense…and failed.

This was how Mongolia fell under the banner of the green Thunderbird pilot.

 

* * *

 

 

“This is statically impossible,” John murmured as his attack didn’t land in Iceland.

“I’m not doing anything special,” Alan said sheepishly.

“I’m only using Alan’s dice now,” Gordon declared.

 

* * *

 

 

“Really, Scott?”

“Absolutely, Virgil.”

“You’re attacking me?”

“This is payback for Mongolia!”

“You do realize that if you do that, you’re leaving an opening for Kayo and John, right?”

“I…” He looked at his strategy, purely based on revenge, and he hated to admit that Virgil was right. Moving in troops from Egypt to East of Africa would weaken his defenses. He had been struggling to keep his foot in Africa for the last five turns. “Fine. I’ll fortify my position. But I’ll be back for you, Virgil. Just you see.”

“Of course, dear brother.”

 

* * *

 

 

“You might be a great swimmer…”

“No!”

“You might have won a gold medal at the Olympics…”

“No no…”

“But your soldiers were no match for my army of amazons,” Kayo pushed away Gordon’s last troop into the ocean’s map with her own. “You’re out, Gordon. The game is over for you.”

“NOOOOOOOOO! Alan!” He clung to the other blond desperately.

“W-What?!”

“You must avenge me!!!”

“Why?!”

“We were allies until the bitter end! You must avenge me! I’ll be your ghostly advisor! Guiding your hand to avenge my unjust death!”

“Gordon, your throws were horrible ever since the beginning of the game. It’s a miracle you lasted that long,” Alan sighed.

“Come on, bro, I’m trying to be devastated by my defeat here. Play your part and at least try to be crushed by my death.”

“Right…”

“You should be, because now that I’m gone, no one can stop Kayo from attacking your other countries.”

“Still feeling lucky now?” Kayo evilly grinned at Alan. The latter had a chill than ran down his spine.

 

* * *

 

 

“Why, hello there, John,” Virgil took two dices. “I was wondering when you’ll try to conquer Congo.”

“Since Europe has been rather difficult, I thought about trying my hand in Africa.”

“Do you mean Alan? …Or are you talking about Scott in Ukraine?” The only answer Virgil had from his older brother was him lifting up his glasses. “Alright. You’ll see that I won’t be going down easily.”

“You know what they say, Virgil,” John flashed him a grin as he threw his dices, “the bigger they are, the easier they fall.”

And indeed, Congo fell.

 

* * *

 

 

“Well, Alan, you’ve been a great neighbor and all, but I think it’s time for you to give me Brazil,” Scott said.

“Awww come on… You and Kayo didn’t give me a break since Gordon’s defeat!”

“Told you that you would miss me,” the second youngest laughed as he came in with some snacks for everyone.

“I don’t know what your soldiers are eating in Iceland,” the eldest watched his dices giving him a great score, “but something tells me they’ll get plenty more once it becomes your only territory on this world map.”

“Not fair,” the young blond whispered before watching his crushing defeat at the hands of the eldest.

 

* * *

 

 

“Coming my way, Kayo?”

“If you had lost as many troops as I have in Iceland, you would understand me,” she told Virgil.

“I certainly do,” John chuckled softly.

“As you can see, I was expecting you.” Virgil grinned and took two dices.

“I’m not worried. Your control over Asia is impressive, but it’s only temporary.”

“You’ll see I’m not an easy prey like Gordon.”

“Hey!” the aquanaut interjected.

“My amazons are hardly impressed by your tiny defenses.” She threw her dice at the same time as Virgil threw his and…

“Well I guess the climate helped me a lot then,” Virgil said as he won the throw. “The weather here is nothing like the Americas.”

“Or perhaps they were distracted by the naked torsos----” Gordon never finished his sentence as he received a pillow square in the face.

“I think the word you were looking for was ‘glistening’---” And Alan shared Gordon’s fate.

“I’m out of pillows, boys. The next thing I’m going to throw are punches. So does any of you have any more to say about that funny little incident of 3 years ago?” The young woman eyed the Tracy boys and the last three shook their heads, chuckling lightly at the two youngest. “I thought so,” she added with her usual grin.

 

* * *

 

 

“Scott.”

“John.”

“I’m breaking the truce.”

The four youngest members of the Tracy family watched the two eldest glaring at each other. They danced around one and the other for the last three hours, avoiding contact and waiting for any other player to take their opponent down, but now, it was no longer possible for them to ignore the two big lines of defense they built in case of a broken truce: in Europe with all the countries having a contact with Ukraine and between Brazil and North Africa.

“I knew you would eventually.”

John had always planned to attack Scott first only in case of extreme necessity. Statistically speaking, he had the advantage with three attack dice while Scott would have a maximum of two to defend himself. The astronaut also hoped that Kayo would have started to decimate his troops in South America, but she and Virgil had been playing against each other over a path into Asia. And Alan…well…he was completely defying every possible statistic and remained still standing in Iceland, his only country left. He was hopeless against Scott where he was, with Kayo in Greenland and John in Europe.

So the second eldest of the Tracy had no other choice but to confront his older brother. Besides, he really wanted to control all of Europe before moving on to Africa.

But he really wished Scott wasn’t so well prepared for his betrayal. For a guy who had been picking his targets according to his guts, he will be a tough one to eradicate from the world map.

He finished his turn, the massacre at the edge of Europe starting, and Scott made his move. He counterattacked him right away, knowing there was no going back now. However, neither of them had been prepared for Virgil to attack Scott near Australia and Kayo moving to South America.

“This is mutiny!” Scott screamed angrily, but remarkably still in a playful mood. “I’m your leader!”

“I don’t recall naming you my leader,” Virgil chuckled after his turn.

“Virgil! How could you?!” Scott glared at him, but his brother only laughed.

“I’m taking back the spice road,” Virgil shrugged, grinning still.

“No one will take me alive!!” Scott took his dice and attacked John yet again.

“You know who else says that, Scott?” Gordon grinned. “Dictators.”

The pilot of Thunderbird One fought only with John while resisting the attacks of Virgil and Kayo. Slowly, his defenses started to break. And for a moment, John thought he would win. Never gloating, the calm astronaut would flash a grin every now and then when he would win a round against Scott, who totally exaggerated his reactions on purpose.

But then…when he less expected it, Virgil moved on his weakened defenses in Southern Europe.

“What? What is this?” he blinked.

“Ah-AH! Finally, you’re backing me up, Virgil!” Scott said with enthusiasm, forgetting he didn’t hold full control of Australia because of his younger brother.

But John looked at the bigger picture and realized that he had been so busy with Scott that he didn’t see how strong his immediate younger brother had become. Within Europe, he had little troops. Everything was focused on the borders. Plus, since Virgil and Kayo made sure he wouldn’t keep a full control of a continent, it was harder to gain more troops at every turn.

If his throws were bad, he would quickly fall.

“Oh no you don’t,” he whispered with a glow of a ferocious competitive spirit in his eyes.

“What just happened?” Gordon came back from downstairs and passed the bag of potato chips to Alan.

“Virgil just declared war to John.” The younger blond took a handful of chips and put them in his mouth. He had come to term with his eminent defeat, but he still oddly found the game interesting despite that fact.

“He’s crazy right?” Gordon brought back the bag on his side and put a handful in his mouth as well.

“Yup.” Alan nodded. “Totally lost it,” he somehow managed to pronounce despite the quantity of chips in his mouth.

“We can hear you, you know,” Virgil chuckled. Oh he saw that glow in John’s eyes alright. The same one he had at the last game of Risk when Scott was beating him. But things weren’t quite the same as back then. Scott hadn’t been taunting him as much and their roles in the family were well established today unlike back then.

“Forget about them, Virgil. Prepare to face defeat!” John suddenly said, _smiling_ , and took a pair of dice.

Despite John’s determination, Virgil pierced through Europe and conquered both Ukraine and Southern Europe, completely eradicating Scott’s presence on that continent. Then, Virgil pushed back John to his African territories. And to only add more humiliation to his installation in Europe…

“Sorry, Alan. You’re out.” Virgil gave back the lonely red soldier of Iceland to his baby brother. Kayo and John glared at Alan who lost his round with a 1.

“You’ve been rolling out 5s and 6s since the beginning of the game, but Virgil comes around and you roll a 1?” Kayo pouted. “Seriously?”

“I guess my luck ran out?” Alan shrugged nervously and ate more chips.

“You’re the whole reason I’m not going to win this game!” Kayo threw her arms above her head.

“Maybe you should have moved on Virgil sooner?” the youngest suggested before moving closer to Gordon.

Soon, Scott was out of the game as well, defeated by Virgil. Then John lost to Kayo in South Africa. The two eldest wore their best brooding faces while the two youngest excitedly watched the match between Virgil and Kayo. However, the green wave continued its advance and despite Kayo’s best efforts in Canada, Virgil ultimately won the game.

The sun had long set behind the horizon when the game was concluded. Kayo left for the kitchen with Alan while Virgil was left to put back the game in the box (the prize of the winner: clean up everything). John and Scott were outside, discussing something while looking at the moon and stars.

“Ok so now I’m curious,” Gordon said out of the blue as he watched Virgil neatly putting all the soldiers in their respective bags. “What exactly happened between Scott and John that made dad hid the game?” His question left his lips with a whisper. He didn’t want the two oldest to hear him. Virgil sighed, smiling as always.

“You might not remember much of that time. You were often gone for your competitions and training a lot. Scott and John didn’t always get along,” he started to explain.

“Yeah. I do remember that. I was aware of what was going on around me despite being completely focused on swimming.” Gordon raised an eyebrow. “But you know, we had our share of fights too. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Scott was more impulsive back then, always saying what was on his mind and doing stupid stunts. John believed him to be immature and felt that he was always babysitting him. It annoyed him beyond words.”

Gordon laughed. “Oh yeah. Sometimes, John acted like he was the eldest because he was so discouraged at Scott’s attitude.”

“Anyway, we played Risk a couple of times before that fateful game. I don’t know why, but Scott kept teasing John. And you know John: he stayed cool and collected, as usual. But you could see his eyebrow twitching after a while. Scott knew which buttons to press. So as the game went on, Scott kept hitting John’s territories and the taunts grew worst and worst…” He sighed and closed the box after putting everything in it. “John finally lost his cool and flipped the board to Scott’s face with one hand.”

“Wait… _John_ did that? Our John?” Gordon couldn’t hide his surprise.

“There’s so much he could take you know. I rarely saw him react like this, if ever again. Scott got mad and jumped on him. Dad came only a few seconds later when he heard me and Kayo yelling and trying to separate them.”

“He must have been pissed.”

“He was.” Virgil looked at his two older brothers talking casually outside. That event seemed so far away now. “And you know dad. He gave them the ‘disappointment’ speech and took the game away. Scott and John looked so ashamed of themselves, but despite that, they didn’t talk to each other for a full week.”

“Wow. No wonder you didn’t want Scott to take out that game again. But everything ends well. You’ve won and they’re already planning their revenge on you. And nothing ties brothers better to one and another than a good revenge.”

“Wait what?” Virgil asked Gordon, but the latter just gave him a mysterious smile before going downstairs. Surely he was kidding right?

…Right?

He looked once more toward his two brothers outside. Scott gave a brief hug to John by passing his arm around his shoulders and rubbed his forearm, laughing about something. John seemed a bit uncomfortable about the hug, but smiled calmly to him before speaking some more. Whatever they were talking about, it put them both in good spirits and their frowny faces they had after they lost the game were already forgotten.

Virgil took another look at the old game and smiled to himself.

“Yeah… We definitely need to play again.” And he went to put the box on the shelves on the secondary level of the living room, in plain sight, for the next time the six of them would be together again.


End file.
